Friday 27 September 2013

Jurassic Park Dinosaur Models! From hatchlings to full size!

It's a rare treat to find model dinosaurs that look exactly like the ones seen in Jurassic Park.  I have always longed for some sideshow quality busts of the Raptors and T Rex.  Which is why when I saw the work of Roostercat online I instantly contacted him for a commission.

Galileo of geenemodels.com was more than helpful.  He had built an astonishing five foot long T-Rex model, and offered this to me, but I had neither the room nor the funds for the piece.  So I compromised and asked if I could commission a bust at the same scale.  This would be the first of many commissions from this talented artist.

A couple of months passed, and a parcel arrived at my office.  I opened it at my desk, and my colleagues crowded round.  It was truly a remarkable model.

 


Next up - I had always wanted a replica puppet of the Velociraptor hatchling in Jurassic Park.  I had a lucky encounter with Gavin of myjurassicpark.com, where he had obtained a casting of the original hatchling sculpt, and suddenly it struck me that a replica may be feasible.  I contacted Galileo to ask him if he'd be interested.  The response was affirmative, so I sent the casting over to him for construction and paint.  When this piece arrived there was a repair job to be done, but soon enough I had the beautiful hatchling in a grassy nest and on display.  Another wonderful addition to the collection.



With two great pieces assembled and on display, I got thinking about a new commission, a full size Raptor bust.  At the time I had insufficient funds so I left this idea alone for a bit.  It would require Galileo constructing the entire piece from scratch.  Little did I know this was already something he had planned for the future!

So the next commission was a Compsognathus 1:1 replica, matching the one we see in Jurassic Park : The Lost World.  Galileo had already constucted a Compy of his own, and it impressed me so much when I saw it, that I had to commision him to paint one up for me.  A large box arrived at my family home, and my father helped me lift the piece out of it's packaging.  We were both staggered by the detail and artistry of this piece, and it is still on display at my family home as a result.



After a long break of no commissions, I returned to the idea of the Raptor bust.  I always wanted a replica of the Raptor from Jurassic Park, with the distinctive flat block head.  Galileo had in the meantime constructed a model of the Raptor we see in Jurassic Park 3, which was stunning.  He explained that he could easily modify that base sculpt to create a replica closer to what I imagined.  We went ahead with the commission and lo and behold, the giant parcel landed three months later.  There are some minor repairs to be made due to the poor handling en route from Mexico, but this is not a big issue.  I look forward to completing these repairs soon.


Monday 16 September 2013

'Jurassic World' - What does Jurassic Park 4's new title reveal?


Last week it was confirmed by Universal that the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise will be called 'Jurassic World', to be released June 12, 2015.  Whilst the title may confuse many, and may sound unoriginal and bizarre as far as titles go, let's not forget the name of a popular space adventure penned by the now retired George Lucas some years ago.  'Star Wars' doesn't sound so odd following it's resounding success.

So looking at the title - what can we deduce about the story?  We take a look at some potential clues.

Gone Global

Jurassic Park was always described in the novel and in the film as an ambitious theme park.  The nearest modern day point of reference would be Disneyland, or the larger Disneyworld.  So in a similar upgrade, maybe we have gone from a theme park, to a worldwide attraction?

The author of Jurassic Park, the late Michael Crichton, even described John Hammond, the owner of the park in novel, as the dark side of Walt Disney.  So we're building up connections to a corporate franchise that has possibly gone global since the last film.

Corporate Greed

Could it be that rich investors ignored the warnings of the incidents of Jurassic Park, and rebranded the franchise 'Jurassic World' to get away from any bad associations with the incidents on Isla Nublar?  Carefully these greedy men prevailed over bad press, and a theme park was created regardless of the threat to human life.  We see these kinds of decisions being made everyday in the real world.

Greedy men were a prevalent theme in Jurassic Park, from John Hammond discussing a 'Coupon Day' with his snide Lawyer to the villain Dennis Nedry (an anagram of 'Nerdy Sinned') taking a bag chock full of dollar bills to steal the park's precious research.

Literal World

The word 'park' refers to a land-based resort.  Could it be that Jurassic World encompasses all types of prehistoric Fauna and Flora, including the rumored sea life that appeared in an early treatment of the film?  The new logo embraces a cool blue backdrop, maybe this suggests the new boss in town is a sea creature?

We're really looking forward to the fourth film here at Jurassic Collectables, so leave your thoughts and comments about the new title below, aswell as any speculations you may have about the plot.